Fluorine-containing alkane is useful for various kinds of applications, such as a reaction intermediate, foaming agent, coolant and the like.
As an example of a known method for producing fluorine-containing alkane, fluorine-containing olefin is reduced at room temperature using a palladium catalyst (see Non Patent Literature 1 below). Another method is also reported wherein CF3CF═CF2 is reduced by hydrogen through a liquid phase reaction using BaSO4, a palladium catalyst supported on activated carbon, etc. (see Patent Literature 1 below).
However, in order to achieve a high selectivity of the target fluorine-containing alkane in these methods, the reaction rate needs to be slowed down; therefore, it is impossible to produce fluorine-containing olefin efficiently on an industrial scale.
Patent Literature 2 below discloses a method for producing fluorinated propane, through a multistep reaction, using fluorine-containing olefin as a starting material by reacting it with hydrogen or a like reducing agent in the presence of a catalyst. A preferable embodiment of this method is such that the reaction is suppressed using only a small amount of catalyst at the initial stage of reaction and then the amount of the catalyst is gradually increased. It is said that this method achieves a high conversion rate and selectivity at a relatively high production speed.
However, in the method disclosed in Patent Literature 2, the amount of heat generated by the reaction becomes unduly large; therefore, removal of heat is necessary by a method, for example, that employs a reactor equipped with a jacket and removes heat using a refrigerant, or other means for cooling the reaction mixture, such as the use of an internal cooling coil, introduction of a diluent into the reaction mixture for additional cooling, and the like. This makes the structure of the reaction apparatus complicated. Furthermore, in order to avoid an excessive temperature rise, control of the introduction speed of the starting material compound becomes necessary, and this entails a reduction in the production efficiency of the target fluorine-containing alkane.